Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	declare_v	king_n	scotland_n	2,738	5	8.4917	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96540	The declaration of His Highnes William Henry, by the grace of God Prince of Orange, &c. of the reasons inducing him, to appear in armes in the kingdome of England, for preserving of the Protestant religion, and for restoring the lawes and liberties of England, Scotland and Ireland.; Declaration of His Highness William Henry, by the grace of God, Prince of Orange ... of the reasons inducing him to appear in arms for preserving of the Protestant religion and for restoring the laws and liberties of the ancient kingdom of Scotland	William III, King of England, 1650-1702.	1688 (1688)	Wing W2328; ESTC R220170	11,912	4

PROT RELIGION AND LIBERTY IE MAINTIENDRAY THE DECLARATION OF HIS HIGHNES WILLIAM HENRY By the Grace of God PRINCE OF ORANGE c. Of the reasons inducing him To Appear in Armes in the Kingdome of England for Preserving of the Protestant Religion and for Restoring the Lawes and Liberties of ENGLAND SCOTLAND and IRELAND IT is both certain and Evident to all men that the Publike Peace and Happines of any State or Kingdome can not be preserved where the Lawes Liberties and Customes established by the Lawfull authority in it are openly Transgressed and Annulled More especially where the alteration of Religion is endeavoured and that a Religion which is contrary to Law is endeavoured to be introduced Upon which those who are most Immediatly Concerned in it are Indispensably bound to endeavour to Preserve and maintain the established Lawes Liberties and Customes and above all the Religion and worship of God that is Established among them And to take such an effectuall care that the Inhabitants of the said State or Kingdome may neither be deprived of their Religion nor of their Civill Rights VVhich is so much the more Necessary because the Greatnes and Security both of Kings Royall families and of all such as are in Authority as well as the Happines of their Subjects and People depend in a most especiall manner upon the exact observation and maintenance of these their Lawes Liberties and Customes Upon these grounds it is that we cannot any longer forbear to Declare that to our great regret wee see that those Councellours who have now the chieffe credit with the King have overturned the Religion Lawes and Liberties of those Realmes and subjected them in all things relating to their Consciences Liberties and Properties to Arbitrary Government and that not only by secret and Indirect waies but in an open and undisguised manner Those Evill Councellours for the advancing and colouring this with some plausible pretexts did Invent and set on foot the Kings Dispencing power by vertue of which they pretend that according to Law he can Suspend and Dispence with the Execution of the Lawes that have been enacted by the Authority of the King and Parliament for the security and happines of the Subject and so have rendered those Lawes of no effect Tho there is nothing more certain then that as no Lawes can be made but by the joint concurrence of King and Parliament so likewise lawes so enacted which secure the Publike peace and safety of the Nation and the lives and liberties of every subject in it can not be repealed or suspended but by the same authority For tho the King may pardon the punishment that a Transgressour has incurred and to which he is condemned as in the cases of Treason or Felony yet it cannot be with any colour of reason Inferred from thence that the King can entirely suspend the execution of those Lawes relating to Treason or Felony Unlesse it is pretended that he is clothed with a Despotick and Arbitrary power and that the Lives Liberties Honours and Estates of the Subjects depend wholly on his good will and Pleasure and are entirely subject to him which must infallibly follow on the Kings having a power to suspend the execution of the Lawes and to dispence with them Those Evill Councellours in order to the giving some credit to this strange and execrable Maxime have so conducted the matter that they have obtained a Sentence from the Judges declaring that this Dispencing power is a Right belonging to the Crown as if it were in the power of the twelve Judges to offer up the Lawes Rights and Liberties of the whole Nation to the King to be disposed of by him Arbitrarily and at his Pleasure and expressly contrary to Lawes enacted for the security of the Subjects In order to the obtaining this Judgment those Evill Councellours did before hand examine secretly the Opinion of the Judges and procured such of them as could not in Conscience concurre in so pernicious a Sentence to be turned out and others to be substituted in their Rooms till by the changes which were made in the Courts of Judicature they at last obtained that Judgment And they have raised some to those Trusts who make open Profession of the Popish Religion tho those are by Law Rendred Incapable all such Employments It is also Manifest and Notorious that as his Majestie was upon his coming to the Crown received and acknowledged by all the subjects of England Scotland and Ireland as their King without the least opposition tho he made then open profession of the Popish Religion so he did then Promise and Solemnly Swear at his Coronation that he would maintain his subjects in the free enjoyment of their Lawes and Liberties and in particular that he would maintain the Church of England as it was established by Law It is likewise certain that there have been at diverse and sundry times severall Lawes enacted for the preservation of those Rights and Liberties and of the Protestant Religion and among other Securities it has been enacted that all Persons whatsoever that are advanced to any Ecclesiasticall Dignity or to bear Office in either University as likewise all other that should be put in any Imployment Civill or Military should declare that they were not Papists but were of the Protestant Religion and that by their taking of the Oaths of Allegange and Supreamacy and the Test yet these Evill Councellours have in effect annulled and abolished all those Lawes both with relation to Ecclesiasticall and Civill Employments In order to Ecclesiasticall Dignities and Offices they have not only without any colour of Law but against most expresse Lawes to the contrary set up a Commission of a certain Number of persons to whom they have committed the cognisance and direction of all Ecclesiasticall matters in the which Commission there has been and still is one of His Majesties Ministers of State who makes now publike profession of the Popish Religion and who at the time of his first professing it declared that for a great while before he had beleeved that to be the only true Religion By all this the deplorable State to which the Protestant Religion is reduced is Apparent since the Affairs of the Church of England are now put into the hands of Persons who have accepted of a Commission that is manifesty Illegal and who have executed it contrary to all Law and that now one of their chieffe Members has abjured the Protestant Religion and declared himselfe a Papist by which he is become Incapable of holding any Publike Imployment The said Commissioners have hitherto given such proof of their submission to the directions given them that there is no reason to doubt but they will still continue to promote all such designs as will be most aggreable to them And those Evill Councellours take care ta raise none to any Ecclesiasticall dignities but persons that have no zeal for the Protestant Religion and that now hide their

may justly look on their Pretended Sentences as having no more force then the Sentences of any private and unauthorised person whatsoever So deplorable is the case of the Subjects who are obliged to answer to such Judges that must in all things stick to the rules which are set them by those Evill Councellours who as they raised them up to those Imployments so can turn them out of them at pleasure and who can never be esteemed Lawfull Judges so that all their Sentences are in the Construction of the law of no Force and Efficacy They have likewise disposed of all Military Imployments in the same manner For tho the Lawes have not only Excluded Papists from all such Imployments but have in particular Provided that they should be Disarmed yet they in Contempt of these Lawes have not only armed the Papists but have likewise raised them up to the greatest Military Trusts both by Sea and Land and that Strangers as well as Natives and Irish as well as English that so by those means having rendred themselves Masters both of the affairs of the Church of the Government of the Nation and of the course of Justice and subjected them all to a Despotick and Arbitrary power they might be in a Capacity to maintain and Execute their wicked designs by the assistance of the Army and thereby to enslave the Nation The dismall effects of this subversion of the established Religion Lawes and Liberties in England appear more evidently to us by what wee see done in Ireland Where the whole Government is put in the hands of Papists and where all the Protestant Inhabitants are under the daily fears of what may be justly apprehended from the Arbitrary power which is set up there which has made great numbers of them leave that Kingdome and abandon their Estates in it remembring well that Cruell and Bloody Massacre which fell out in that Island in the year 1641. Those Evill Councellours have also prevailed with the King to declare in Scotland that he is clothed with Absolute power and that all the subjects are bound to obey him without Reserve upon which he has assumed an Arbitrary power both over the Religion and Lawes of that Kingdome from all which it is Apparent what is to be looked for in England as soon as matters are duely prepared for it Those great and insufferable Oppressions and the open Contempt of all Law together with the apprehensions of the sad Consequences that must certainly follow upon it have put the subjects under great and just fears and have made them look after such lawfull Remedies as are allowed of in all Nations yet all has been without effect And those Evill Councellours have endeavoured to make all men apprehend the losse of their Lives Libertys Honours and Estates if they should goe about to preserve themselves from this Oppression by Petitions Representations or other means authorised by Law. Thus did they proceed with the Archbishop of Canterbury and the other Bishops who having offered a most humble petition to the King in termes full of Respect and not exceding the number limited by Law in which they set forth in short the Reasons for which they could not obey that order which by the Instigation of those Evill Councellours was sent them requiring them to appoint their Clergy to read in their Churches the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience were sent to prison and afterwards brought to a Triall as if they had been guilty of some enormous Crime They were not only obliged to defend themselves in that pursute but to appear before Professed Papists who had not taken the Test and by Consequence were men whose interest led them to condemne them and the Judges that gave their opinion in their favours were thereupon turned out And yet it can not be pretended that any Kings how great soever their power has been and how Arbitrary and Despotick soever they have been in the exercise of it have ever reckoned it a crime for their Subjects to come in all Submission and Respect and in a due number not exceeding the limits of the Law and represent to them the Reasons that made it impossible for them to obey their orders Those Evill Councellours have also treated a Peer of the Realme as a Criminall only because he said that the subjects were not bound to obey the orders of a Popish Justice of Peace tho it is Evident that they being by Law rendred incapable of all such trusts no regard is due to their orders This being the security which the people have by the Law for their Lives Liberties Honours and Estates that they are not to be subjected to the Arbitrary procedings of Papists that are contrary to Law put into any Employments Civîll or Military Both Wee our selves and our Dearest and most Entirely Beloved Consort the Princesse have endeavoured to signify in termes full of respect to the King the just and deep Regret which all these Proceedings have given us and in Compliance with his Majesties desires signified to us Wee Declared both by word of mouth to his Envoy and in writing what our Thoughts were touching the Repealing of the Test and Penall Lawes which wee did in such a manner that wee hoped wee had proposed an Expedient by which the Peace of those Kingdomes and a happy aggreement among the Subjects of all Persuasions might have been setled but those Evill Councellours have put such ill Constructions on these our good Intentions that they have endeavoured to alienate the King more and more from us as if Wee had designed to Disturb the quiet and Happines of the Kingdome The last and great Remedy for all those Evills Is the Calling of a Parliament for securing the Nation against the evill practises of those wicked Councellours but this could not be yet compassed nor can it be easily brought about For those men apprehending that a lawfull Parliament being once assembled they would be brought to an account for all their open violations of Law and for their Plots and Conspiracies against the Protestant Religion and the Lives and Liberties of the Subjects they have endeavoured under the specious Pretence of Liberty of Conscience first to Sow divisions among Protestants between those of the Church of England and the Dissenters The designe being laid to engage Protestants that are all equally Concerned to pteserve themselves from Popish Oppression into mutuall quarrellings that so by these some advantages might be given to them to bring about their Designes and that both in the Election of the Members of Parliament and afterwards in the Parliament it selfe For they see well that if all Protestants could enter into a mutuall Good Understanding one with another and Concurre together in the Preserving of their Religion it would not be possible for them to compasse their wicked ends They have also required all Persons in the severall Counties of England that either were in any Imployment or were in any Considerable Esteem to declare before